What happened?

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When ordinary people meet professional killers, only darkness can even the odds.

Mexico’s drug war is real, and the source of corruption, violence and atrocities against innocent people. If it were to leak across the border,

How would American citizens be affected?

How would we react?

Ruthless assassins face off against a janitor, a teacher, and two immigrant children and lose.

Head custodian Frank is just about to lock up Grand Avenue school for the night when he sees the strangers, and the automatic pistols they carry. Frank knows they’ve come for the two Mexican boys spending the night in Ms. Castellon’s room, and that they could hurt the teacher too. Rushing through the halls on his bum leg, he has the kids and the teacher almost out of danger when the killers close in. Thanks to his quick wits and “dumb luck pushed to the limit,” Frank kills the two gunmen. But he knows more will be coming, so he has to not only get rid of them, but make it look like they were never there.

Before the night ends, Frank learns why the boys were targeted by the drug mob, and just how tough the petite and serious Ms. Castellon can be. And he finds out they’ve only won the first round of a very tough fight.

When are you safe? Who do you trust? When is it right to do wrong?

These questions drive the characters in my new suspense novel Darkness, Darkness. Desperate choices will be made in the first few minutes of the story, and plot twists will come down to the last few pages. Packed in between are action, psychological suspense, admirable courage, and undeniable terror. Killers will be killed; authorities will be lied to; young people in their first act of adulthood will go against everything they’ve ever learned or wanted. In the end, life and hope are chosen over fear and death; a new family is formed; a new future is imagined.

The story works both sides of the southwestern U.S. border and revolves around a vendetta by a drug cartel against two refugee boys, who wind up under the hastily improvised protection of a Phoenix elementary school teacher and janitor. This unlikely band defeats hired killers but then must hide their victory even from the police out of fear of retribution from the seemingly omnipotent and utterly evil drug cartel. At the same time, we are also seeing the events from the side of the narcos, who, it turns out, have their own fears and failings.

Darkness, Darkness is a stand alone action-suspense story in a mainstream style, with literary pretensions and lots of heart.. It addresses urgent issues of justice, prejudice, and the psychology of trauma.

Fred Andersen’s Books

Testimonials

“Picked up this book and couldn’t put it down! I was drawn into the story-line.”

-Kelly

“Best crime story I have read in a while”

-Josh

“Scary!!! I felt alive and in the middle of the action while reading this book!”